Pre-cut aluminum foil round covers

ABSTRACT

The present invention is a pre-cut aluminum foil round cover that is more convenient to use than aluminum foil torn from a roll, conserves a substantial amount of aluminum that would otherwise be unnecessarily thrown away, and covers round containers more safely and effectively than an aluminum foil sheet torn from a roll. The most preferred embodiment is a foil round having a 5 inch (12.5 cm) diameter. The foil rounds can be pre-cut and stacked, thereby eliminating the need for packaging that requires a sharp blade or serrated edge, and eliminating the frustration associated with tearing aluminum foil from a tightly wound roll that is supposed to smoothly tumble inside of a long box.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Nearly every household in the United States has at least one roll ofaluminum foil, usually stored in an easy to access location in thekitchen. When needed, a consumer pulls a length of aluminum foil from atightly wound roll and then tears it to make a rectangular sheet that ismost commonly 12 or 18 inches wide at the pre-cut edges. These widesheets work especially well for covering rectangular baking pans. Whatis so convenient about aluminum foil is its ability to be hand smoothedand molded to fit a particular need. Sometimes the usefulness ofaluminum foil is enhanced by the addition of structure, such as theapertures included in Rasmussen's barbecue aluminum foil (see U.S. Pat.Nos. 5,399,439).

Despite the great qualities of ordinary aluminum foil, its flexibilitycontributes to its tendency to tear with little effort, especially wherethere is a fracture along an edge. Intentionally tearing a long sheetalong a blade or serrated edge is fairly likely to result in a straighttear, but it is a challenge to pull off and tear a short sheet withoutlosing an entire corner. Short sheets are commonly used to cover cans,jars, cups and glasses, all of which almost always have a round openingwith a diameter that is between 5 and 10 centimeters (2-4 inches). Evenif the proper amount of foil is cleanly removed from an aluminum foilroll to cover a round opening, the four corners of a rectangular sheetare excess and therefore wasted material when placed over a roundcontainer. If a 5 inch piece of foil is all that is needed to cover around container, such as a can, over two hundred percent more materialthan is needed must be torn from a standard 12 inch roll, and over threehundred fifty percent excess material must be torn from an 18 inch roll.The most frugal consumer will try to save some of the scrap, but themajority of consumers just wrap the excess down the sides of thecontainer—a wasteful misuse of a natural resource.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention is a pre-cut aluminum foil disc which, for thepurposes of this description, is called a foil round. A foil round is aspecialty item that has a very common use, and the use of a foil roundin place of a rectangular sheet from a roll saves time and a significantquantity of raw materials. A foil round can be smoothed over the top ofa round-mouthed container in a fraction of the time required to tear asheet from a roll and deal with the excess material that is wasted.Additionally, because there are no free corners or torn edges, foilrounds are less likely to come off and look much neater than the priorart when applied as a round container cover.

The foil rounds of the present invention are preferably about 10 to 15centimeters (4-6 inches) in diameter, but most preferably about 12 to 13centimeters (5 inches) in diameter. This size fits over most cans, jarsand glasses that are likely to be covered and leaves adequateoverlapping material for smoothing down the sides of such a container sothat the foil is secure and creates a highly functional seal. The foilrounds are preferably die cut so that every sheet is the same size, andthe trimmed scrap from the manufacturing process can easily be recycled.The foil rounds of the present invention have no corners, and the edgesof the final product are free from jagged edges that are common startingpoints for tears. The symmetry and uniformity of foil rounds makes iteasy to stack them very nicely for packaging into compact dispensersthat do not require cutting blades. Although there are many differentways to dispense foil rounds, the preferred dispensers are either atissue box type dispenser or one of the numerous different ways thatconsumer paper products are packaged.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a plan view of a foil round of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a plan view of the excess material that may be recycled if thefoil round of FIG. 1 is used instead of the prior art.

FIG. 3 is a perspective view of the prior art after it has been appliedover a can.

FIG. 4 is a perspective view of the foil round of FIG. 1 after it hasbeen applied over a can.

The following is the list of numerical callouts used in FIGS. 1-4:  2foil round  4 pre-cut outer perimeter edge  6 excess material  8serrated edge 10 torn corner 12 sides 14 round container 16 bottomportion 18 uniform edge

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

The primary focus of the present invention is foil rounds that aresuitable for covering round food and beverage container openings morequickly, easily and reliably than any other commercially availabledisposable consumer product. An additional object of the presentinvention is to conserve aluminum resources through an ecologicallyconservative and waste-free design that avoids the unnecessary disposalof tons of scrap aluminum foil by providing an easy means to recover andrecycle that scrap during the manufacturing process. As shown in FIG. 1,a foil round 2 of the present invention has a smooth pre-cut outerperimeter edge 4 and is symmetrical for easy centering of the foil roundover the top of a round container opening.

In the preferred embodiment, the foil rounds 2 are circular sheets, mostpreferably having an outer diameter of approximately 5 inches, made fromuniform thickness aluminum foil that is flexible and smooth. For thepurposes of this description, aluminum foil is any of the variousmaterials that are sold or generally recognized as being aluminum foilor a suitable substitute. The addition of a coating or another elementduring or after manufacturing does not make such a material unsuitablefor use in making the foil rounds of the present invention. Methods formaking aluminum foil products will not be discussed because they arealready well known in the industry, such as the methods described inU.S. Pat. Nos. 5,466,312 and 5,725,695, which are incorporated herein byreference but not limitation.

FIG. 2 exemplifies the differences between the prior art and the foilrounds of the present invention. The most significant disadvantage ofthe prior art is the amount of excess material 6 that must bemanipulated over a round container. Foil rounds are the geometricallyappropriate product for covering a cylindrical container with a roundopening, but rectangular sheets are currently used because there is nobetter alternative commercially available. Another important distinctionis the smoothness of the outer perimeter edge of a foil round ascompared to the prior art. When a consumer tears off a short sheet ofthe prior art, which creates a serrated edge 8, the last part of thetear almost always results in a torn corner 10. One final distinctionworth noting is that the prior art shown is about the best possibleresult that can be achieved without using a ruler and a scissors to cuta sheet. During actual use, when a short sheet is torn from a roll it isoften either too narrow or wastefully wide, not to mention badly torn.The foil rounds of the present invention are always symmetrical and freeof tears.

FIGS. 3 and 4 show the advantages of the present invention over theprior art. As shown in FIG. 3, when the excess material 6 of the priorart is smoothed down the sides 12 of a round container 14, it makes itextremely likely that one who grasps the covered container will grasp aconsiderable area of foil instead of container. If mostly foil isgrasped, the container could easily slip away from the foil and bedropped. With the foil rounds of the present invention, as shown in FIG.4, a conservative amount of overlapping material is all that needs to besmoothed down the sides such that usually only the upper inch or two ofthe container is covered by foil, thereby leaving the entire bottomportion 16 of the container exposed so that it can safely be movedwithout the aluminum foil cover slipping off the container.Additionally, the foil rounds provide a substantially uniform edge 18that is far less likely to be bumped or snagged, so the improvedaluminum foil cover maintains an adequate seal over the container evenafter being moved.

There are numerous well known methods of manufacturing aluminum foil andof cutting thin sheets of material. For example, a continuously cast andcold rolled aluminum foil product could be laid flat and sent though acutting machine. Die cutting methods and cold stamping methods are twovery common manufacturing processes that would be appropriate for makingthe foil rounds of the present invention. Many of the same methods usedto cut and package paper products, such as small writing paper pads thathave a decorative shape, can similarly be used to cut and package thefoil rounds of the present invention. During mass production, it may bemore efficient to stack large sheets of aluminum foil cast strip productso that a thick stack of foil rounds can be stamped or otherwise cut atthe same time. Other suitable methods not mentioned herein are notprecluded if such other methods will produce a quality final productthat is substantially a foil round of the present invention.

While a preferred form of the invention has been shown and described, itwill be realized that alterations and modifications may be made theretowithout departing from the scope of the following claims. For example:there are numerous decorative designs, including scalloping, that couldbe incorporated into the outer perimeter edge; there are numerousdiameters that could be used instead of 5 inches, or in combination suchthat there are small, medium and large diameter foil rounds; and, forthe purpose of packaging foil rounds, individual rounds may be linked toeach other along an edge so that as one round is dispensed, it pullsanother round into its position within the package design, or the outerperimeter edge may include a protruding tab to make it easier to removea single sheet.

1. A method of making aluminum foil covers comprising the steps of:forming at least one large sheet of substantially uniform thicknessaluminum foil that is flexible and smooth; cutting the at least onelarge sheet to form numerous substantially disc-shaped single sheets;and packaging a predetermined quantity of the substantially disc-shapedsingle sheets for use by consumers who desire to cover round containers.2. The method of claim 1 further comprising the step of recycling atleast some of the scrap that is produced by the cutting step.
 3. Themethod of claim 1 wherein the cutting step is characterized by a diecutting process.
 4. The method of claim 1 wherein the cutting step ischaracterized by a stamping process.
 5. The method of claim 1 furthercomprising the steps of stacking and aligning a predetermined quantityof large sheets such that the cutting step will produce numerous stacksof substantially disc-shaped single sheets.
 6. The method of claim 1further comprising the step of embossing a design into the aluminumfoil.
 7. The method of claim 4 further comprising the step of embossinga design into the numerous substantially disc-shaped single sheetssubstantially during the cutting step.
 8. The method of claim 1 whereinthe cutting step is characterized by a decorative design being formedaround the perimeter of the substantially disc-shaped single sheets. 9.A disposable consumer product comprising: a substantially uniformthickness of aluminum foil that is flexible and smooth; a pre-formedouter perimeter edge that substantially defines a single ready-to-usesheet of aluminum foil; and a substantially round shape that, when thesingle sheet is laid out in a plane, is defined by a diameter that is atleast one centimeter larger than the diameter of an opening that isdesired to be covered.
 10. The disposable consumer product of claim 9further comprising a packaging container that holds a stack of apredetermined quantity of ready-to-use sheets of aluminum foil.
 11. Thedisposable consumer product of claim 9 characterized by an embosseddesign.
 12. The disposable consumer product of claim 9 characterized bya decorative design formed in the outer perimeter edge.
 13. Thedisposable consumer product of claim 9 wherein the pre-formed outerperimeter edge is between ten and fifteen centimeters in diameter. 14.The disposable consumer product of claim 9 wherein the pre-formed outerperimeter edge is between fifteen and twenty centimeters in diameter.15. The disposable consumer product of claim 9 wherein the pre-formedouter perimeter edge is between twenty and thirty centimeters indiameter.
 16. The disposable consumer product of claim 9 wherein thepre-formed outer perimeter edge is between thirty and forty centimetersin diameter.
 17. The disposable consumer product of claim 9 furthercomprising a non-stick coating on a surface of the aluminum foil.
 18. Amethod of making a disposable cover for a round can comprising the stepsof: substantially centering a pre-cut disc-shaped sheet of aluminum foilover an open end of the can; and smoothing substantially all overlappingmaterial down the sides of the can.
 19. The method of claim 18 furthercomprising the step of selecting an appropriately sized pre-cutdisc-shaped sheet of aluminum foil such that the overlapping materialsmoothed down the sides of the can will extend at least one centimeterdown all sides of the can, but not more than five centimeters down anyside of the can.
 20. The method of claim 18 further comprising the stepsof: carefully removing the disposable cover from the open end of thecan; re-covering the can with the same disposable cover; andre-smoothing the overlapping material down the sides of the can.